
c 













































0 






- AN 

A.DDIIESS 

DELIVERED AT THE 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 


BEFORE 

Society of l^e ^lumni, 

AT THEIR 


ANNUAL CELEBEATION, DECEMBER 11th, 1802. 

BY 


HON. M. RUSSELL THAYER. 

»\ 


PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 


PHILADELPHIA; 

KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, No. 607 SANSOM STREET. 

1863. 


j j > 







; 

- •. 



t 


I 


' 4 


[r 




<1 


*N 


f t 


\ 


/..« tl 



•>* * 

« k 

•< 





V-. 



•» 




In the year of Grace 96, and of the Building 
of the City 850, died at Borne, at a venerable 
old age, a vahant soldier, and a distinguished 
citizen — Virginius Bufus, General and Consul. 
This man saw in the course of a long life, 
eleven Emperors, and, as one has said, notwith¬ 
standing the virtues that adorned his character, sur¬ 
vived them all. “ He lived,” says Pliny, “ to see 
himself extolled by poets and celebrated by histori¬ 
ans, anticipating the praise of posterity, and enjoy¬ 
ing his posthumous fame.” As a child he had wit¬ 
nessed the funeral procession of Augustus, and 
beheld the body as borne upon the shoulders of the 
Magistrates from Nola, where he died, and preceded 
by the statue of victory, it passed beneath the 
triumphal arch erected for the occasion, and entered 
the streets of Borne. 

He had beheld the licentious tyranny of Tiberius, 
who was called by his preceptor, Theodorus of 
Gadara, “ a composition of mud mixed with blood,” 
Borne laid waste by his wicked minister, H^lius 
Sejanus, and the exultation which filled the city as his 
body was dragged by a hook through the streets and 
cast into the Gemonae. He was still a youth during 


6 


those four years of terror which were filled with the 
frantic cruelties of Caligula. He had beheld the 
Empire, relieved from that despot by the dagger of 
a slave, transmitted to Claudius his weak-minded 
brother, in whose reign a numerous body of Senators 
and some hundreds of Knights, fell by the hand of the 
executioner. He had seen the Empire of the world, 
freed from that tyrant by the mushrooms of Locusta, 
the Sorceress, and the poisoned feather of the Court 
physician, pass to that Nero, whose savage butcheries 
made even that bloody time stand aghast with 
terror. 

He could remember the murder and the midnight 
funeral of Britannicus, the dreadful matricide of 
Agrippina, the whispered stories of the groans which 
issued from her grave, and the mysterious sounds of 
the trumpets distinctly heard along the ridge of 
hills; the defeat of Boadicea, the bloody bath of 
Seneca, the murder of the Princess O eta via, of 
Silanus, the great-grandson of Augustus, and a mul¬ 
titude of illustrious men; the conflagration of the 
city, the Christian martyrs covered with inflammable 
materials, and lighted up when the day declined, to 
serve as torches during the night in the gardens of 
Nero; all Italy ravaged and the provinces plundered; 
the temples rifled of their treasures, and heaps of 
massy gold dedicated to religious uses, produced to 



7 


answer the demands of riot and extravagance; 
Greece and Asia plundered, and the very statues of 
the gods considered lawful prey. 

He had beheld the whole of that sad picture 
painted by the historian of those unhappy times. 
“ Italy overwhelmed with calamities, new wounds 
inflicted, and the old which time had closed, opened 
again and bleeding afresh, cities sacked by the 
enemy or swallowed up by earthquakes, and the 
fertile country of the Campania made a scene of 
desolation, the adjacent Islands fllled with exiles, 
rocks and desert places stained with clandestine 
murder, and Rome itself a theatre of horror, where 
nobility of descent and splendor of fortune marked 
men out for destruction, where the vigor of mind 
that aimed at civil dignities, and the modesty that 
declined them, were offences without distinction, 
where virtue was a crime that led to certain ruin, 
where the guilt of informers and the wages of their 
iniquity were alike detestable, where the Sacerdotal 
order, the Consular dignity, the government of 
Provinces, and even the Cabinet of the Prince were 
seized by that execrable race as their lawful prey ; 
where nothing was sacred, nothing safe from the 
hand of rapacity; where freedmen betrayed their 
patrons, and he who had lived mthout an enemy, 
died by the treachery of a friend.” 


8 


He had seen Galba clothed with the purple by 
his avaricious soldiery, and slain by them within the 
year for not keeping the golden promises by which 
he had obtained it. He had lived through three 
civil wars. He had witnessed the short lived and 
turbulent supremacy of Otho and Yitellius, Vespa¬ 
sian returning from the East with the sunshine of 
peace upon his victorious eagles, the justice and the 
clemency of Titus, the relapse of all things again 
to crime and tyranny under Domitian, and died at 
last at a ripe old age, fellow-consul with Nerva, the 
just and good. 

He had seen human life in all its phases, fortune 
in all her vicissitudes, government in all its revolu¬ 
tions, philosophy in all its mutations, society in all 
its transitions. He had beheld the destruction of 
Herculaneum and Pompeii, by the lava of Vesuvius. 
He had seen Rome enlarged and beautified by art 
and then laid waste by fire. He had witnessed the 
subjugation of the Parthians, the reduction of Judea, 
and the conquest of Britain. He had seen the 
doctrines of Epicurus give way before those of Zeno, 
and beheld the rise of that pure religion which 
swept into oblivion the vain philosophy of both. 
He was a youth of nineteen when our Lord died on 
Mount Calvary. He was thirty years of age when 
Saint Mark wrote his Gospel, and if not in Rome on 



9 


the day on which St. Paul was put to death, was in 
Germany with his legions. He was a soldier 
renowned in war. No man, we are told upon the 
highest authority, had acted a greater part in the 
Revolutions of his time, or contributed so much to 
deliver the Romans from tyranny. He had been 
thrice entreated by the army, to take upon himself 
the title of Emperor, and had nobly replied that he 
would not only refuse it himself but suffer no one 
else to assume it who was not elected to it by the 
Senate. When he died all Rome went forth to his 
funeral. The Senate decreed that the rites should 
be performed at the public expense, and Cornelius 
Tacitus delivered his funeral oration from the 
Rostrum. 

What a variety of experience and observation of 
human events was here compressed within the 
narrow compass of one man’s life. What fluctua¬ 
tions of Empire, what changes of opinions, what 
vicissitudes of human fortunes. 

My mind has been led into these channels of re¬ 
flection by the contemplation of the rapid succession 
of events in the history of our own times. We 
seem to be so constituted that remote objects and 
events often make a stronger impression upon our 
mental vision and engage our reflective faculties 
more actively, than those which are near and palpa- 


10 


ble. Men are now living whose lives have spanned 
an era filled with events as various and as important, 
with one exception, as that which filled the day of 
Virginius. The exception to which I refer, is of 
course, the advent of Christianity into the world. 
There are now among us men who were coeval with 
the great French Revolution of 1789, who remember 
the strifes of the factions, and the sanguinary scenes, 
equalling in cruelty and horror anything witnessed 
by the Roman octogenarian; who recall the rise of 
Buonaparte, his career of victory and success, the 
18th of June that beheld his sudden overthrow; the 
second Revolution, and the later struggle between 
republican opinions and the principle of monarchy, 
which shook the thrones of Europe; who remember 
the reign of George III. I have myself conversed 
not long since, with an American who had heard 
Fox and Pitt and Burke, in the House of Commons. 
There are those still living who remember the spread 
and consolidation of British Empire in India, the 
dissolution of the Irish Parliament, the abolition of 
the slave trade, the Spanish Revolution, the Greek 
Revolution, the emancipation of the Cathohcs, the 
map of Europe thrice altered, the foundation of 
Australian civilization, and the reconstruction of 
Italy, so long ruined and stripped of power by in¬ 
ternal jealousies; who, to come to our own land, 


11 


were witnesses of tlie recognition of American In¬ 
dependence, the league of confederation, the 
adoption of the Constitution which made us one 
Nation, three national wars, and, alas that I am 
obliged to add, that great and fierce insurrection 
against public order and the national life, which now 
devastates the land with remorseless cruelty, the 
foe of civilization, of liberty, of law, and of equal 
government; which, if it were successful, would 
blot America from the map of Nations, and fill the 
past with unceasing reproaches and the future with 
hopeless shame. 

As we look down these long vistas of events and 
behold how many of them have transpired in the 
life of a single man, we seem to be brought nearer 
to what before seemed remote, and to feel more 
sensibly the truth, that we are all parts of that 
common record which contains the accumulated ex¬ 
perience of man. 

It has grown to be a trite remark, that history is 
philosophy teaching by examples. It should rather 
be said that history teaches philosophy by examples. 
The philosophy which it teaches is the philosophy 
revealed to man from Heaven. The philosophy of 
the Divine government of the Universe, the philoso¬ 
phy of the Divine law and its sanctions, the 
philosophy which teaches the mortality of Nations, 


12 


as well as of individuals, the instability of all human 
establishments, the corrupted nature of man, the 
promises which wait upon good deeds and virtuous 
lives, the retribution which attends upon evil deeds 
and unholy passions, the reward of duties well per¬ 
formed, the punishment of duties long neglected. 
A perfect nation like a perfect man, would be im¬ 
mortal. The lessons to be derived from this 
philosophy are the duty of man to his Creator, to 
himself, to society, and the State. The theme which 
I have selected for a brief consideration upon this 
occasion, pertains to the last of these relations—the 
duties of citizenship. 

The family relation is the foundation of Govern¬ 
ment, or, as Cicero calls it, the germ and nursery of 
the State, (principium urbis et seminarium reipub- 
licae,) or, as he says in another place, our country is 
the sum of all our social relations, (cari sunt parentes, 
cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnes omnium 
caritates patria una complexa est,) for which, he 
exclaims, what good man could hesitate to die if it 
would profit her. For this reason the Romans were 
accustomed to call the most august body in the State 
the Conscript Fathers, and to designate the Emperor 
in later times, as the Pater Patrise. “ Did mankind,” 
says Dr. Paley, “ spring out of the earth mature and 
independent, it would be found, perhaps, impossible 



13 


to introduce subjection and subordination among 
them. But the condition of human infancy prepares 
them for society by combining individuals into small 
communities, and by placing them from the begin¬ 
ning under direction and control. A family contains 
the rudiments of an empire. The authority of one 
over many, and the disposition to govern and be 
governed are, in this way, incidental to the very 
nature, and coeval, no doubt, with the existence of 
the human species.” Nations are but amplifications 
of families. Here then is at once the key to the 
relation of citizenship, and the rule which should 
regulate its duties. If men would but consider that 
Government is but the organism of an extended 
family relation; that its laws are but regulations for 
the preservation of the family order and for the per¬ 
petuity of its security and happiness, how much 
greater would be the interest which the citizen would 
feel in the State; how much greater his respect for 
the laws and his detestation of every thing calculated 
to disturb the common order, or unsettle the general 
peace and welfare. How sacred, in this light, is the 
principle of unity; how necessary the blessings of 
peace and concord. When families are afflicted with 
social strife and alienation, they experience the worst 
ills which humanity is heir to; when States are torn 
by internal factions, shaken by insubordination, or 


14 


convulsed by revolt, they suffer the worst afflictions 
which can befall the family of man. 

It is too much the habit of men’s minds to forget 
or to disregard the sacred and fundamental social 

o 

principle upon which Government is built. They 
are too much inclined to look upon the Government 
of their country, not as a system of which they are 
necessary parts, but rather as an external power to 
which they are subject, but which they may, to some 
extent, influence and control. From this it results 
that many regard the public interests with indiffer¬ 
ence, or mingle in public affairs only to gratify the 
pride of personal opinion, or to subserve some selfish 
personal interest. Thus the spring of patriotism is 
corrupted, and the fountain of public opinion which 
should minister to the health and prosperity of the 
State, becomes either a dead sea or a bitter and angry 
torrent. An evil such as this cannot be too seriously 
regarded in a system like ours. Indifference to public 
affairs on the part of the many, and a selfish interest 
on the part of others, are sufficient for the ruin of 
any State founded upon equal political rights. When 
the governing and the governed begin to have sepa¬ 
rate interests; when, in the place of parties who 
strive for distinction and for the palm of merit in the 
service of the commonwealth, factions arise which 
contend for the greatest share of its spoils, and who 


15 


sacrifice the public to their party attachments and 
animosities; when indifference seizes upon the mul¬ 
titude and rapacity characterizes the rest; when, in 
a word, the true relations of the citizen to the State 
are forgotten or contemned, and the duties which 
arise out of them are undervalued and neglected, 
dissolution and change may as certainly be looked 
for as any effect which follows upon cause. At such 
a time in the Commonwealth of Rome, arose Tibe¬ 
rius Gracchus to plunge it into anarchy and civil 
tumult. At such a time arose Cains Julius Csesar 
to trample upon its laws and overthrow its liberties. 

A just regard for the true relationship of the 
citizen to the State furnishes not only a rule of duty 
to the State, but a measure also of that reciprocal 
duty which arises from the State to the citizen. It 
should be remembered by every Government that it 
is the Parens patrise. If all Governments were truly 
paternal in their character; if all measures were con¬ 
ceived with the view of promoting the greatest hap¬ 
piness of the whole family; if there were less legis¬ 
lation for classes, for sections, and for private inte¬ 
rests ; if Governments were conducted upon principles 
of fidelity to the country rather than upon those of 
fidelity to party, the result would be greater harmony 
and confidence among the people; greater respect 
for the Government, and greater prosperity for the 


16 


Nation. They who govern are dependent upon those 
who are governed, for power is but a delegated trust. 
It were well for them therefore to bear in mind the 
admonitions of a distinguished writer upon this sub- 
ject. “Let civil governors learn hence to respect 
their subjects; let them be admonished that the 
physical strength resides in the governed; that this 
strength wants only to be felt and roused to lay 
prostrate the most ancient dominion; that civil 
authority is founded in opinion; that general opinion 
therefore ought always to be treated with deference 
and managed with delicacy and circumspection.” 
The greatest responsibility which has been imposed 
upon man in his social character, is responsibility for 
the exercise of pohtical power. Hence those who 
abuse this power or pervert it to unlawful pur¬ 
poses, have justly merited the condemnation of good 
men in all ages of the world. In proportion to the 
magnitude of this trust also, are the temptations to 
abuse it. In proportion to the greatness of this 
responsibility are the dangers which attend it. 
Hence Tacitus says of Agricola, “ he was every day 
in danger of rising to the precipice of glory.” 

The principles of the family relation furnish also 
the proper criterion of conduct between citizens of 
the same State; for the duties of the govermental 
relation are of a three-fold character—the duty of 


17 


the citizen to the State, of the State to the citizen, 
and of citizens to each other. The members of the 
same commonwealth are brothers of the same family, 
children of the same household. If this truth was 
never forgotten, if it were always remembered that 
we are all members of the same family, and that the 
State is our common mother; that her safety and 
prosperity is the safety and prosperity of all, and 
for that reason, should be the aim and purpose of 
all, how much of party rancor and political hatred 
would be abated; how much charity and concession 
where now we behold resistance and intolerance; 
how much instruction where now obstinacy and 
ignorance; how much unity of action where now 
strife and division; how much energetic and pow¬ 
erful action where now the sluggish equilibrium of 
opposing forces; what results of combined influence 
where now waste of power. The efiects of party 
upon the welfare of States have been made the theme 
of many disquisitions. Without entering here into 
the arguments which have been adduced upon the 
general question, it is sufficient to say, that so far as 
concerns our own system of government it would be 
difficult for any one to answer or to resist the view 
of our duty in this respect, presented by George 
Washington. ‘‘ There is,” says he, “ an opinion that 

parties in free countries are useful checks upon the 
2 


18 


administration of the government, and serve to keep 
alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, 
is probably true, and in governments of a monar¬ 
chical caste, patriotism may look with indulgence if 
not with favor upon the spirit of party. But in those 
of the popular character—^in governments purely 
elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From 
their natural tendency, it is certain there will always 
be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
And there being a constant danger of excess, the 
effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to miti¬ 
gate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent it bursting 
into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should con¬ 
sume.” 

The first duty which the citizen owes to the Govern¬ 
ment is submission to the civil authorities. As the 
peace of families depends upon the subordination of 
the members to the general head, so the peace of 
States rests upon obedience to the law. He who 
would disturb that peace by resisting the law, or by 
fomenting popular discontents or inciting to disorder, 
has advanced but a step further in his pernicious 
course than he who habitually vituperates the public 
authorities and brings into contempt the administra¬ 
tion of public affairs. Both are alike enemies of the 
State and of civil order. Confidence and respect are 


19 


SLS much due to the head of the civil as the social 
family; and whatever is calculated to bring either 
into contempt will impair the happinesss and pros¬ 
perity of the whole society. This is an evil to which 
we in this country are particularly prone. The 
unlimited liberty of speech and of the press, which 
is one of the boasts of our free constitution, is too 
apt, especially in political affairs, to degenerate into 
an injurious and demoralizing license. Denunciation 
often takes the place of criticism; accusation that of 
inquiry, and abuse that of condemnation. When this 
\dcious habit becomes so general and so common as 
to cease to excite remark, we may well fear that the 
public sentiment has become somewhat degenerate, 
and the principle of respect for established authority 
somewhat impaired. The Roman Senate once quelled 
a dangerous popular tumult by simply appearing in 
a body at the scene of commotion. 

They who administer the Government are entitled 
to the respect of its citizens: if not for any personal 
quality, for the dignity of the office which they fill. 
They cannot be assailed by vituperation or covered 
with false accusations, without, in some degree, lower¬ 
ing that office and injuring it in the estimation of 
the people; and whatever impairs the esteem of the 
people for their own institutions, impairs the insti¬ 
tutions themselves, and paves the way for violent and 


20 


Tinsalutary changes, and perhaps, for insurrection and 
civil war. Hence the growth of insubordination and 
disrespect to civil authority is always one of the first 
symptoms of a decaying State. Nothing is farther 
removed from true liberty than disobedience to the 
law, or that kindred vice which goes before it, and 
which finds its chief employment in habitual denun¬ 
ciation of the civil authorities, and in undermining 
the foundations of public confidence. This is one of 
the evils to which a free State especially is subject. 
It is the duty of the good citizen not only to resist 
its influences hut to rebuke its approaches, and to 
discountenance it wherever it shows itself; for civil 
prosperity can no more be expected to continue in a 
State whose authority does not command respect, 
than social happiness can be expected to dwell in a 
family poisoned by distrust and suspicion. An honest, 
manly and truthful criticism of public affairs and of 
public measures is one thing; an organized system 
or a confirmed habit of detraction and misrepresen¬ 
tation is another. The one is the right of every 
freeman, the other is the enemy of free institutions. 

It is the duty of the citizen to discharge intelli¬ 
gently and conscientiously the political duties which 
the Constitution imposes upon him. If this country 
should ever lose the freedom which it now enjoys, 
that calamity will probably chiefly arise out of the 


21 


neglect of this duty. It is easy and perhaps natural 
to avoid the trouble which these duties impose. 
Many are entirely disinclined to participate in public 
affairs; many think it of no use to do so; and these 
opinions are held by many who discharge with ex¬ 
emplary fidelity, not only the duties of the family 
relation, but those of every other relation of life ; 
yet no duty which belongs to the class, which is 
called by moral philosophers, relative duties, is of 
higher obligation than this. In a government which 
is based upon equal political rights, and which de¬ 
pends for its security entirely upon the intelligence 
and virtue of the people, every virtuous man who 
withholds from the common welfare the influence of 
his own opinion and example, is derelict in duty, and 
injures the State. The wisdom and the virtue of a 
nation is the sum of the wisdom and virtue of the 
people who constitute the nation; and whoever, from 
motives of ease, or false views of public affairs, 
refuses to contribute to that sum, disregards a seri¬ 
ous moral obligation. It must happen that in every 
State there will be large numbers of ignorant and 
unprincipled men. If the intelligent and virtuous 
will not retain power in their own hands, it must of 
necessity fall into the hands of such. What use 
they will make of it, may be read in the history of 
nations who have lost their prosperity, their inde¬ 
pendence, their existence. 


22 


If any man shall despair at the smallness of his 
individual influence in so great an aggregate, let 
him remember that that aggregate is made up of 
units, and that his oAvn is as large, and perchance, 
by reason of his virtue, his station, or his example, 
larger than many others which enter into the grand 
total. At any rate let him do his duty, and leave 
the result in higher hands. It is a grievous error 
into which many fall, who suppose that public 
affairs are external to themselves, and are matters 
in which they have no special concern or interest; 
that they will go on as well without their assistance 
as with it; and that, like the return of the seasons, 
good government will always endure without any 
aid from them. Let such men reflect that in the 
world are two principles, the principle of good, and 
the principle of evil; that evil is always struggling 
for the mastery; that the gravitation of popular 
government, when not controlled by virtue and 
wisdom, is toward corruption and anarchy; and 
that the end of these is despotism. Let them also 
remember, that as is the State, so are the children 
of the State; that the happiness of families and of 
individuals is inseparably connected with the wel¬ 
fare of the State; that whatever afflicts the one, 
must oppress the other; that disease which pros¬ 
trates the body, must prostrate all the members of 


23 


the body ; that the overthrow of government is the 
chaos of society; that the wrecking of the ship 
means the drowning of the passengers; the falling 
of the house, the destruction of its inmates; that 
public ruin means the ruin of families, the ruin of 
individuals, personal distress and wretchedness. 

It is the duty of the citizen to support the Gov¬ 
ernment in the execution of the laws and the 
exercise of its lawful authority. That would be a 
strange government in which the principle should 
obtain that only those laws are to be executed which 
everybody approves of. Yet, some in their conver¬ 
sation advocate absurdities as great as this. If 
public measures do not square with their own views 
of expediency or right, they do everything in their 
power to bring them into contempt and to obstruct 
their operation. In a representative government, 
every man has a share in the making of the laws, 
and for that reason is bound to obey them with 
alacrityIf they are not of his liking, he has a 
right to advocate their repeal, but while they 
endure, the peace of society and the welfare of 
the State demand that he shall lend them a ready 
obedience. He should remember that the business 
of legislation is of all political functions the most 
difficult; that conflicting interests, conflicting opin¬ 
ions, and often conflicting prejudices, are to be dealt 


24 


with; and that what is produced, if not the best 
that could be conceived, is perhaps the best that 
could be accomplished. In the pride of his personal 
opinion let him remember that he is but one of the 
great family, and that the public security and 
repose demand that he should cheerfully acquiesce 
in measures which perhaps his private judgment 
may condemn. Self-denial is a part of the com¬ 
pact. It is the price which he has agreed to pay 
for protection against anarchy and barbarism. A 
spirit of discontent and opposition is the fruitful 
parent of disorders. It undermines the stability of 
the State, as a querulous and fault-finding disposi¬ 
tion in a family destroys the peace of the whole 
circle. 

It is his duty also to give countenance and 
support to the officers of the State, to make his 
influence felt on the side of the law, and to support 
those who execute the law. Especially is this his 
duty in times of war and public tumult. What 
would be said of the crew of a ship who, in a tem¬ 
pest, should refuse to assist the master, upon the 
ground that they had differed with him in his reck¬ 
oning of the day before 1 or of the member of a 
family who should refuse to succor the household 
in danger, because the peril had been caused by 
their own imprudence 1 How shall the safety of 


25 


the State be secured in time of danger, if we refuse 
to assist those who are charged with the execution 
of the laws 1 In such times, moral support is often 
of more value than material aid; for it begets 
courage and constancy and confidence and unity, 
and these are power. Had the people of Greece 
listened to the entreaties of Demosthenes when he 
called upon them in the name of the Gods to throw 
away their strifes and jealousies, and to unite in the 
common cause against Philip, proclaiming to them 
in a loud voice that they could not forsake the cause 
of Grecian freedom unless they forsook their glory, 
their ancestors, and their renown with succeeding 
ages, they might have been spared the disgrace of 
Chseronea and that gloom of night and tyranny 
which descended and thickened over Greece. 

It is the duty of the citizen never to despair of 
the republic. Whatever dangers may beset it, how¬ 
ever formidable the perils which assail it, however 
thick the storm or dark the way, he must adhere to 
his faith in his country and its institutions. If 
trials come, if sacrifices must be borne, they must 
be patiently received and cheerfully submitted to. 
We must live and labor, and hope through aU for 
our country. Patriotism is not only a sentiment, 
but an active, vigorous and enduring principle of 
action; of action which is never weary in labors, 


26 


never forgets the greatness of its cause, and never 
abandons its confidence and its hopes. That feel¬ 
ing is not worthy of the name which is willing to 
rejoice with the country in the day of its prosperity, 
if it will not also labor, and if it be necessary, 
suffer for it in the day of its adversity. It is only 
when the State is threatened by some impending 
danger, when the minds of men are perplexed with 
fear of some great calamity, when we begin to feel 
the foundations move beneath us, and to tremble for 
the safety of the edifice which holds our liberties, 
our families, our fortunes, our all, that patriotism is 
summoned to its highest and noblest duty. He 
who will then shufile off his responsibility and fly 
from his duty, ill requites the mother who has shel¬ 
tered him in her bosom and protected him by her 
authority and her power. 

I am reminded by the present occasion of the 
indissoluble connection between good education and 
the perpetuation of free government. In a political 
system such as ours, knowledge is as essential to the 
preservation of the Constitution as air is necessary 
for life. A government purely representative can 
neither prosper or continue to exist among a people 
debased by ignorance or corrupted by false systems 
of education. The degeneracy of ancient Rome, 
the decay of her virtue, and the loss of her liber- 


27 


ties, was attributable in no small degree to the 
neglected education of her children. None knew 
this better than the Romans themselves, who lived 
amid the corrupted tastes and manners which char¬ 
acterized the times which succeeded the overthrow 
of the republic. Quintilian has two long chapters 
upon the subject, and Juvenal an entire satire. 
The unknown author of the Dialogue concerning 
Oratory complains bitterly of the same evil. “ In 
the present age,” says he, “ what is our practice'? 
The infant is committed to a Greek chambermaid 
and a slave or two chosen for the purpose, generally 
the worst of the whole household train, all utter 
strangers to every liberal notion. In that worship¬ 
ful society the youth grows up imbibing folly and 
vulgar error. Throughout the house not one servant 
cares what he says or does in the presence of his 
young master; and indeed how should it be other¬ 
wise'? The parents themselves are the first to 
give their children the worst examples of vice and 
luxury. The strippling consequently loses all sense 
of shame, and soon forgets the respect he owes to 
others as well as himself. A passion for horses, 
players and gladiators seems to be the epidemic 
folly of the times. In our houses, at our tables, 
sports and interludes are the topics of conversation. 
Enter the places of academical lectures, and who 


28 


talks of any other subject'? The preceptors them¬ 
selves have caught the contagion. Need I mention 
the manner of conveying the first elements of 
school learning'? No care is taken to give the 
student a taste for the best authors; the page of 
history lies neglected; the study of men and man¬ 
ners is no part of their system, and every branch of 
useful knowledge is left uncultivated.” 

When I speak of the necessity of education in a 
free State, I refer not only to that general system of 
instruction in the rudimental branches of knowledge 
which has obtained so generally in a large portion 
of our country; which has been so wisely fostered 
by the State, and which has diffused so much intel¬ 
ligence and happiness throughout the land, but also 
of education of that higher order which is imparted 
in our seats of learning, and the benefits of which 
have been dispensed for more than a hundred years 
by our benign Mother, this venerable University, 
whose anniversary we celebrate to-night. Many 
men of great ability and usefulness in the State 
have undoubtedly arisen who have not had the 
advantages of that education which is furnished in 
our colleges and institutions of learning; and so 
we occasionally observe, amid the stunted growth 
which covers the rocky sides of some high moun¬ 
tain, a lofty oak or pine, which, triumphing over 


29 


the inhospitable soil and battling with the winds, 
rears its lofty head above the surrounding scene, a 
land-mark for the passing generations of men. But 
if we would perpetuate the race of educated men 
who are to preserve the arts and sciences from 
decay, who are to enlarge the common stock of 
knowledge in the world, who are to aid the State 
with the gathered wisdom of the world’s experi¬ 
ence, to minister at the altars of religion, to sit in 
the sacred seats of justice, or to impart to the youth 
of the land the principles of thorough and correct 
education, the supply of such men can only come 
forth from the halls of learning, for these are not 
only the treasuries of the accumulated knowledge 
of the world, but the proper seminaries or seed 
places of thought and of progress. 

It is now one hundred and thirteen years since a 
few patriotic and public-spirited men laid the foun¬ 
dations of the University of Pennsylvania. Since 
that period she has reared and fitted for the active 
duties of life many distinguished, and a multitude 
of useful, patriotic, and good men, who have dif¬ 
fused through society, in different parts of our 
country, the benign influences of the education 
which they here acquired. It is our birth-right as 
children of the same foster mother to feel a just 
pride in the fame which she has acquired and the 


80 


blessings she has scattered, and our filial duty to be 
thankful for the prosperity which she now enjoys. 
Her department of arts and sciences, and her school 
of medicine have, during the century which has 
passed, attained for her a reputation of which we 
need not be ashamed; while her law school, but 
recently founded, is fast adding to her established 
power and infiuence the opportunities of usefulness 
and fame in a new direction. 

As her halls echo to-night with the footfalls of 
her returning children, many happy memories min¬ 
gle with the pensive reflections which attend the 
flight of time and the ceaseless flow of human life. 
Those who like myself have gone four lustrums on 
their way since they left these doors will look in 
vain, not only for many companions of their college, 
days, but also for the familiar faces of the profes¬ 
sors who then filled these chairs. Not one re¬ 
mains. Of them we may truly say to-night, Eo 
magis p'cefulgent quod non videntiir. Without for¬ 
getting any, I may he permitted to say in connection 
with the subject which has been briefly considered 
to-night, that those of my own date well remember 
the lessons of patriotism and social duty so clearly 
taught and forcibly illustrated by our venerable 
Provost, Dr. Ludlow, now no more, and that sound 
and orthodox instruction in the Constitution of our 


31 


Country received at tire hands of Professor Peed, 
so early lost to the cause of letters and of art. To 
all of them we pay the grateful homage of our 
filial duty. Those of them who have passed away 
from this mortal scene, we may be permitted to 
invoke in the words addressed by Tacitus to the 
memory of Agricola, “ If in another world there is 
a pious mansion for the blessed; if as the wisest 
men have thought, the soul is not extinguished with 
the body, may you enjoy a state of eternal felicity! 
Exalt our minds from fond regret and unavailing 
grief to the contemplation of your virtues. To 
cherish your memory, to embalm it with our praises, 
and, if our frail condition will permit, to emulate 
your bright example, will be the. truest mark of our 
respect, the best tribute your family can offer.” 

Let the young who now sit in the seats in which 
we once sat, and frequent the places in which we 
were wont to assemble, and who listen to the in¬ 
structions of those who now fill with honor the 
places of responsibility once occupied by others, 
remember that the day will come when, standing 
where we now stand, their retrospect will be fraught 
with happy memories, or filled with unavailing 
regrets. Let them with us rejoice to-night in the 
prosperity of our ancient mother, and like Franklin 


32 

and his fellow founders, in 1749, commend her in 
the coming times “ to the favor of Almighty God.” 








